infraspecific validity

[Joe Laferriere]

On Mon, 8 Jan 1996, Curtis Clark wrote:
>
> But back to my original question:  Assuming that Ivieia neocalifornica Clark
> were invalid (since I guess the rules state only that an infraspecific must
> be in a valid species), the bibliographic issue remains.

Woops. Sorry if I misread your original question. I would suppose
(although I could be wrong on this) that if you published it as

Ivieia neocalifornica subsp. arizonica Clark

it would automatically assumed that the Ivieia neocalifornica in question
were the validly published one. The subspecies you describe must have a
valid species name as the first part of the subspecies name, but it does
not matter whether the type specimen of your subspecies really belongs
to that species. You could call it

Zea mays subsp. arizonica Clark

and your subspecific epithet would still be valid.